ComplaintsforFrankCrum Staffing, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  03/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  FrankCrum PEO Services: 1. Deduction money from employees paychecks that is incorrect but won't return it 2. Asking you to sign contracts that state in correct practices but then saying they will not do what it says in their internal systems. They still require you to sign it anyway so they can then say "well you signed it" 3. They do not live up to their obligations, answer email, answer phone messages and make multiple excuses as to why they have not gotten back to you 4. they have taken money from employees checks when it should not be removed 5. they state they are customer service oriented but then take advantage and ignore issues 6. I am asking for money back that they incorrectly took from employees pay checks but refuse to answer request and make up excuses. 7. So far they owe at least $3122.31 to employees but that will increase as I do more auditing 8. They have not provided cancellation of our contract steps to be able to collect more illegit money from employees I will not upload documents at this tie due to employees sensitive information being on it. they will be provided as a resolution is in process.

  Business response

  04/14/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2022/04/14) */ Based upon written communications April 14, 2022, between ***** ***** and FrankCrum's Compliance and Collections Manager, ********* ******** all concerns have been addressed appropriately and Ms. ***** has, or will shortly, rescind this complaint in full. No further action is warranted. Consumer Response /* (2000, 9, 2022/04/15) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) Please close this dispute. FrankCrum has rectified the issues I had mentioned in my dispute. This can be withdraw and considered closed. Consumer Response /* (3000, 15, 2022/04/21) */ Please reopen this complaint. FrankCrum has sent a threatening email to us which is explained below. The compliant was closed per their request for to withdraw an early termination fee. FrankCrum deposited a large some of money into our business account. The reason was explained to us as "That was the void transaction to move wages from MN to FL, which is why there was an accompanying debit to offset this credit." . FrankCrum tried to withdraw the deposit the next day. However, it was stopped by the bank. They wanted us to wire the funds back to them. However, the bank flagged the 2 transactions done by FrankCrum as a regulatory compliance issue, possible money laundering for investigation. When I tried to contact the bank to wire the money back, I was told there was a 7 day hold on the deposit for investigation. I had to provide multiple explanations reviewing these transactions, why I needed to wire it back to FrankCrum while going up the chain of management at the bank to bypass the 7-day hold. Finally, I was able to get them to send the money back, then this is where we begin again with FrankCrum. We received an email today demanding additional payment: "FrankCrum does not agree to credit ***************** $261.50. This is not supported by our mutual contract and is not a concession we will make. In our clear, written communication below, FrankCrum offered to cover your $30 wire fee and allow ***************** to terminate the CSA without an early termination fee. If we do not receive payment of $465.81 by end of business today, our prior offer to allow an early termination of the CSA will be deemed revoked and FrankCrum would pursue all remedies for the balance owed, including for early termination" There was a credit owed to us by FrankCrum of $208.50 based on prior complaints of actions they took while handling our account incorrectly. That is what makes up the $465.81 they are demanding. Our companies bank account, as their client or customer should have never been involved in any internal distribution transfer between states for payroll. This is a deposit we will have to explain going forward into 2023. FrankCrum does not believe that "our company" should be compensated in the amount of $261.50 for our time, pain, processing, explaining, documenting of fixing the error they initiated, which they are trying to pas off as a normal transaction they would do with any customer they have. By FrankCrum's previous admission: they did not understand our operations which caused them to withdraw from employees' paychecks extra money that was not warranted. Multiple deposits of the weekly paychecks to employee's bank accounts, refusing to listen to my complaints or how our operations were not like other companies, and they were not handling us correctly. As a matter of fact, I only got their attention with my Termination of Service Notice. FrankCrum broke the contract long before I sent a Termination of Service Notice. However, now they want to call on it when we charge them and admin fee for fixing their mistakes. FrankCrum ruined trust between us and our employees by their payroll processing, loss of revenue to our business, costs for contacting our CPA, Lawyer and taking away precious time that could have been used to run and grow our business. To threaten us if we do not pay them $461.50 by end of business 4/21/2022. If this is so important to their business needs after they have multiple times mishandled our account, our money, our business revenue then the problem is bigger then us paying them this small fee they demand from us. Saying their time is precious but ours is not worth any compensation. Our Lawyer has agreed we are entitled to charge an admin fee and it falls outside of any contract of services. The deposit into our account with the expectations of us dropping our work to immediately return it to them is also not part of the contract. We will not close this complaint again and we want this to stand on record as the practices of FrankCrum as being questionable with the lack of care and general human good faith customer service to their customers. They seem to think threatening someone over the own inability to handle their accounting processes by using their customers bank accounts as a simple transaction to hide the mistakes they made inside their own organization. We want to have no more contact with FrankCrum, no more threats from them, for us to go both our separate ways with ending their demands for $461.50. No additional demand for payment of any amount of money they want. They must stop using us and our situations to continue to try to destroy our business reputation, our business revenue any further then has already been done. Business Response /* (4000, 17, 2022/05/02) */ FrankCrum is seeking payment for services rendered to the Consumer in accordance with our mutually executed agreement. As the Consumer is aware, they travel to multiple states to conduct their business and reported wages for several employees under their MN location. FrankCrum processed those wages, as reported and approved by the Consumer, which included required state specific tax withholdings. After reviewing the consumer's concerns about the wages being reported to MN when employees primarily worked and resided in FL, FrankCrum agreed to move all 2022 wages to their home state. This corrective transaction resulted in a credit transaction to void the MN wages as well as a debit invoice to bill for the FL wages. The respective debit and credit transactions were processed to the bank at the same time, however, the consumer stopped payment on the debit transaction and allowed their bank to post the credit transaction. This resulted in FrankCrum being owed a substantial amount for the 2022 FL wages. If the Consumer was not in agreement with the credit and debit transactions, they could have simply stopped payment on both with their bank. However, they only stopped payment on the debit transaction. FrankCrum attempted to reach the consumer several times to help clarify the transactions and provide any assistance they could to resolve the balance in good faith. The Consumer never once advised FrankCrum of the alleged bank hold or subsequent investigation. FrankCrum's knowledge of same was received via this BBB Complaint, not as a communication with Consumer. If FrankCrum had been provided notice of same, FrankCrum would have been more than happy to provide their bank with any information needed to resolve the matter. Consumer is attempting to withhold $461.50 of fees due FrankCrum; $208.50 of which they believe is owed as a billing credit and $261.50 of which they claim is due them for costs associated with sending us payment. FrankCrum has confirmed to the consumer on a multiple prior occasions and provided documentation of same that the $208.50 was already provided to them in a prior billing credit and was not available to them. By deducting this amount from their repayment to FrankCrum, they effectively took the billing credit twice in bad faith. FrankCrum has also confirmed in writing it was not in agreement with the consumer withholding $261.50 of fees due FrankCrum for costs associated with the consumer's time. FrankCrum did agree to cover the Consumer's bank fee of $30.00 to wire the funds to FrankCrum in good faith. While we are certainly sympathetic to the time Consumer spent researching this matter, we do not have a written agreement in place for Consumer to charge or withhold payment to FrankCrum unilaterally. Further, Consumer agreed to unconditionally indemnify FrankCrum for any losses and fees. This indemnification survives termination of the contract. FrankCrum prides itself on their reputation of customer service excellence and tried earnestly to resolve the concerns with the Consumer in good faith. FrankCrum is requesting that Consumer honor their commitments in our mutual agreement and fund services rendered. FrankCrum's claim remains unpaid to date by Consumer and reserves its full legal rights. Consumer Response /* (4200, 19, 2022/05/11) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) FrankCrum has been paid for all services they have provided to ***************** ************. Their claim is false that we did not pay for services rendered. They deducted on a weekly basis all money owed to them based on their invoice after submission of payroll for employees. We received 2 invoices per week from them. FrankCrum was advised we work in multiple states when they took us on as a customer. They were also aware that all of our work came from the government. Our jobs would be in multiple areas based on the need of our client. They were also aware that our work was very short, and our labor employees traveled to each location but did not reside there or stay long enough to warrant to pay state fees. The jobs were government and fell under a special clause that is written by the government in which we were exempt of state regulations. We only needed Worker comp insurance in the state. They ignored these known facts provided to them before business started with them. Instead of being informed of this exemption by us as the customer they informed us we were not knowledgeable, and ill-informed on regulations in which they were the experts on. Based on these continued practices by FrankCrum it affected employees' paychecks by deducting over $3500.00 from their paychecks. They would deposit multiple amounts of money to the employee's bank accounts with no explanation to the employee. This made it difficult for the employees to even confirm they were paid the correct amount. After ***************** was unable to remedy this situation with FrankCrum, we sent a termination of service. Our employees felt they had no other choice then to turn in their termination notice effect immediately due to frustration of how their paychecks were being handled by FrankCrum. A loss of our labor force made a huge toll on ***************** completing its contracts, incoming stream of revenue and would leave us in breach with the government for not being able to complete our contract obligations. This would cause us to lose our ************************ Status with the government and ultimately shut our company down. Once the notice of termination of services was received along with termination of the labor employees in their system FrankCrum then became engaged. They agreed to refund the money they deducted from the employees check incorrectly to them via direct deposit. They also owed ***************** $208.50 which would be refunded on the next payroll run. Explaining that our labor staff will not work for us if they continue to handle any payroll processing our payroll would drop extensively along with their income based on our payroll per week. They tried to explain that the multiple deposit into their accounts was due to their internal processing in which they set up multiple companies for us and each company was paying the employees. ***************** pressed to them again their internal restrictions should never touch a customer or an employee especially enough to confuse and anger a worker. The number one rule in any business is you do not mess with people's paycheck to the point they feel cheated and lose their respect questioning if they are getting the correct pay for their work. Without any notice from FrankCrum a deposit was made into ***************** bank account the amount of $51,392.51. We had no explanation of the deposit what it was for and why they would give us that amount of money. At that point I contacted our law firm, ( we can provide their name if needed), to get advice on this deposit since I was unsure of the situation, and what legal ramifications it held for ***************** without any approval prior. We were advised to document every conversation, every explanation and do nothing until contacted by them. They also advised us we should stop all transactions coming in or out of our accounts by them due to their behavior at this point. Our lawyer was on standby to jump in as the situation progressed. ***************** was instructed that the deposit did not have to be returned to FrankCrum at this point. I demanded FrankCrum tell us in writing the nature of the deposit, why our bank account was being used for FrankCrum's purposes. Any additional action by us was not free and we were entitled to charge a fee by law for our time. FrankCrum provided an explanation for the deposit into our account as "That was the void transaction to move wages from MN to FL, which is why there was an accompanying debit to offset this credit." This explanation was provided to our lawyer who in turn advised us this type of offset should not have included our bank account in any way. ***************** as a customer of FrankCrum should never have our financial accounts involved into an internal accounting function. FrankCrum also stated that our credit of $208.50 had already been returned to us previously. However, in the email statement from FrankCrum they stated, "Had all debits/credits been cleared through your bank, you would have effectively been given the $208.50 credit due *****************." This contradicts the statement that ***************** had already been given this credit and hinged upon the withdraw of the deposit they put into our bank account to provide it to us. ***************** agreed to return the deposit money to them via wire transfer. In attempting to do that ***************** Credit Union flagged the transaction as suspicious because the deposit hit the account one day and the next day, they tried to withdraw it. In the history of transactions with FrankCrum a deposit especially of that large dollar amount had never been initiated into our account but only debts had occurred. In our attempt to wire the money back since the amount of money had been flagged, they had put a 7 day hold on the money before it could be returned. ***************** had to provide documentation on the reason for the deposit from FrankCrum as well as the reason for return. All this took time away from ***************** personnel from working on their daily tasks to rectify the situation. ***************** wired back to FrankCrum the total amount owed back to them except the following deductions: 1. $30.00 wire fee 2. $208.50 credit owed to us per their email 3. $261.50 for admin fee for our time and effort which by law we can claim. That settled the amount owed to FrankCrum. In addition of issues we had with FrankCrum there are a few things I want to document. o FrankCrum agreed to waive any termination fee they tried to charge us for cancellation of service if we would close out the BBB complaint against then and remove any negative comments we had raised on the internet. We did agree to do that however, the final situation of the deposit into our account occurred. They then told us we must return the money deducted for admin fee and the credit owed to us or they would charge us the $7,724.99 termination fee. "Additionally, considering our accommodations to rectify the billing concerns and shorten your contractual notice, we do request that you withdraw any complaints filed, including the BBB complaint, or negative comments or reviews posted online or any social media outlet." o In asking FrankCrum to explanation how the termination fee was calculated it was discovered that they had been adding payroll $$'s to our initial payroll totals in our original contract. Each time we started as new job they added the estimated payroll $$'s on top of our base payroll. At the time of our termination of service they recorded our payroll for the year to be three quarters of our annual revenue. No new hires were ever added to our account to warrant this huge increase of our payroll for the year. o FrankCrum stated "As we discussed on our call, and you agreed, ***************** has a unique operational setup and at times it may take some learning on both ends for everyone to be on the same page. I'm glad we were able to establish a positive outcome for your unique payroll moving forward and while I'm saddened to learn of your desire to still terminate, we definitely understand and respect that decision."

• Initial Complaint

  10/06/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contacted Frank C.for payroll services. They made promises of doing better than the company we had of ********* ********** Once we switched to their company we were left without payroll for a little over a month which also means we did not have worker's comp coverage. We had to stop work for a month with no coverage. At that time we advised we would start shopping for new coverage. I asked specifically if we did not work for a week would we be charged a fee, I was told NO. However, when I did not work for a week I was charged a $300 fee. When speaking with the sales rep Kelly she did not say we would have to do WIRE payments for payroll. Wiring is $30 per wire, that was an additional $120-$150 a month that we were not made aware of. We tried to cancel services due the Frank C. not holding up to their end of the spoken contract we made to get our business. They are trying to charge a cancellation fee of $2,574 for a job not done. I have made several attempts to resolve this issue

  Business response

  10/15/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/10/15) */ Contact Name and Title: ******** *****, Counsel Contact Phone: XXXXXXXXXX Contact Email: *********@frankcrum.com FrankCrum has been in business for 40 years and we pride ourselves on assisting clients with their payroll, tax and insurance needs so they can concentrate on building their business. We strive to deliver best in class customer service and to operate with the highest levels of integrity and transparency. I can empathize with your complaint as you have laid it out; however, I think some of the facts are skewed and the complaint is potentially misdirected. You claim to have been left without payroll or workers' compensation coverage for over a month by FrankCrum, however, this allegation does not match up to our records. Our internal records reveal that in January 2021 a quote was requested for Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services through FrankCrum. You executed the quote with the contingency that final approval was subject to a favorable loss control survey. As you may recall, the loss control survey results were less than favorable and final approval was initially denied as a result. However, to find a positive solution for you, FrankCrum provided safety recommendations that were required to be taken in order to obtain final quote approval. You responded personally to those recommendations by letter in February and after review, were granted final underwriting approval by FrankCrum. Our records show that we conducted a welcome call with you on March 1, 2021 and certificates of insurance were issued on March 2, 2021. The first payroll was processed for pay date March 5, 2021 with services being effective back to the start of that pay period, February 22, 2021. In review of the Proof of Coverage Database maintained by the State of Florida, I can see that your prior coverage through ********* Leasing cancelled effective December 19, 2020, well before the initial quote was produced by FrankCrum with contingencies. We cannot speculate why you cancelled your prior services before your confirmed enrollment and activation with FrankCrum, but this certainly is not a result of failure by FrankCrum. To address your other concerns, all of these items can be clearly identified in the contract you signed. You mention a $300 fee that FrankCrum charged you for not working one week. As clearly noted on your signed quote and Exhibit A to the contract, a weekly minimum workers' compensation charge was applicable to your account. You also alleged FrankCrum did not tell you about the requirement to wire your payment for services to FrankCrum; however, this is also clearly noted in the contract with which you signed. FrankCrum has no control over the cost your bank charges for wire payments; however, we did offer to revisit your payment method approval terms after a few months of timely payments. You referenced that a sales rep named Kelly made promises on behalf of FrankCrum. It is important to understand that FrankCrum works with third and fourth parties which assist us in selling our PEO services; however, our written contract is FrankCrum's means to ensure we clearly communicate our expectations and requirements with our clients to avoid any dissatisfaction or surprises. When you requested to cancel services, we immediately reminded you of the notice requirements needed pursuant to our mutual agreement; however, you confirmed you would not honor those terms. As a result, the early cancellation fee was assessed, which again was clearly disclosed in our contract which you signed. Finally, I want to address your statement wherein you allege FrankCrum refuses to provide you with a Loss Run report. This is unequivocally false. FrankCrum received a request for a Loss Run report on September 22, 2021 by the third party broker and FrankCrum provided the report the very same day. If you do not have this report in your possession or if you would like to resolve your outstanding balance, please contact us directly. Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2022/02/28) */ I do apologize for the late response. I just found this email in my spam folder. What can I do to reopen this case? I do not recall the exact dates, however, I would not have canceled my previous coverage if I thought or would have been told the truth about enrollment. Based on their response, "bait and switch method" is their tactic. Kelly told us everything we wanted to hear. We did not know she wasn't a part of their company and just a 3rd party vendor. Kelly advised us to go through her for everything. It wasn't until I started having issues that I started speaking to Frank Crum directly. In the beginning it was all Kelly answering all my questions and getting services. I did not read the fine print on the contract because Kelly answered all of our questions over the phone. I should have known better than to assume that I wasn't lied to. I have an email from Kelly stating if we let them know ahead of time the $300 will not be charged.

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